Frankie speaking with movie writer

Category: Dear Frankie News | Posted by:adminArticle Date: August 24, 2004 | Publication: Greenock Telegraph | Author: EditorsPublication/Article Link:
ANDREA GIBB: Film writer says Inverclyde has a special hold on her imagination.GREENOCK writer Andrea Gibb is getting ready for one of the biggest weeks in her career with the UK premiere of her second feature film, Dear Frankie.

In an exclusive interview with the Telegraph the former Ardgowan Primary school pupil and mother-of-one told how her home town was one of the central inspirations of the critically acclaimed movie.

She said: "I was really lucky the director and producer decided to film here. It's a very cinematic area — there's an amazing juxtaposition of the water, the cranes and old industrial landscape. It's amazing how many writers and actors have come out of Greenock. It's a response to growing up in an environment that is very interesting and complex."

Dear Frankie, which stars Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler, was filmed in Greenock and Gourock in spring last year and is premiered on Friday at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

And Andrea, who worked as an actress and teacher before becoming a writer, is looking forward to the proud moment when the film will be shown to a Scottish audience for the first time.

She said: "It is so exciting. It was so good making the film and it was such a big part of all our lives that its release really means a lot."

Dear Frankie is Andrea's second film. Her first, Afterlife, which was also partly filmed in Inverclyde, won an audience award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year and is now on general release in cinemas.

Andrea, who grew up in Nelson Street but now lives in Glasgow, added: "I remember driving down here one day and stopping just after the Newark roundabout because there were two signs on the Greenock sign for film sets. One was for Afterlife and the other was Dear Frankie. I had to pull over and I just sat there screaming.

"It is one thing to be filming in your home town, but to be filming two films you have written on the same day in the same place is amazing!"

Dear Frankie is due to be released in New York and Los Angeles on 1 October. The film makers are anticipating a good response in America and have already had some good reviews.